New To The Whistle - Hello and Quick Question

[KenRyan]

I am a guitar player but have just recently been bitten by the tin whistle bug. I was at a show by a lady named Heather Dale (Canadian Folk Singer/Songwriter) and marveled at how beautiful she made the instrument sound.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to pop my head in and say hello, and also to ask for a tip or two for quickly getting up to speed. I've been working on Toss The Feathers, arranged by The Corrs, which is coming along OK. But oddly enough, the thing I'm having a bit of bother with is sight-reading! I'm a musician, but sight-reading has never been my forte.

Anyway, I'm really excited to start really playing this instrument!

Cheers!

Ken

Generation - C
Clarke - D
Feadog - D

[Adrian]

Welcome to C&F Ken.

You'll discover that a great many competent players of the Irish whistle do not read music, and some regard learning the dots as a hindrance to playing well. Personally I think reading music is a useful skill for musicians but it is by no means essential.

[cj]

Welcome! Reading music is not necessary. Just play and enjoy!

[squidgirl]

I found that I began to progress faster and sound better when I stopped trying to sight read the music. Instead, I began to learn & memorize the tunes phrase by phrase, sticking with a single phrase until it was engraved in my finger memory and I could begin to play it in a musically pleasing way. If you have slow-downer software and a recording of the tune you're learning, you can select your phrase and loop it to listen to or play along with as you get it fixed in your memory and fingers. It took some effort to wean myself from the need to sight read as I played, and instead just use the sheet music as a cheat sheet to peek at when my ear or memory failed me, but doing so meant that I could play my tunes anywhere I found myself with a whistle, with no books or papers necessary, and that was very satisfying.

[Denny]

I don't understand why you need to be able to read music

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[mutepointe]

After I learned to play an assortment of instruments, I find it interesting how I focus on different aspects of sheet music. Am I looking at the guitar chords for guitar, all the notes for keyboards, the melody, harmony or descant line for wind instruments, the words for singing, or am I trying to pay attention to the sheet music (or not pay attention to the sheet music) comprehensively, especially when I'm playing with other people?

Every now & then, I am required to play a piece of music on an instrument that is not the insturment that I usually play that piece of music. Then it's like I am looking at some completely strange piece of music.

Good luck. You'll get better with practice.

[StevieJ]

I've been working on Toss The Feathers, arranged by The Corrs, which is coming along OK. But oddly enough, the thing I'm having a bit of bother with is sight-reading!

Does this mean you're working on a sheet-music arrangement published by or on behalf of the Corrs?

I suppose if your aim is to reproduce what the Corrs do with that tune, then this is a reasonable way to proceed.

But if your aim is to learn to play Irish music well, and eventually to master that tune, I'd say put Toss the Feathers aside, learn the basics of Irish whistling and come back to the tune in a few months - or even years. It's not the best place for a beginning whistler to start - if you want to achieve a good traditional whistle style, that is. Unless you are some kind of wonderchild!

As for how to develop speed - stay relaxed, practise lots. In general, don't tackle tunes before you're ready for them. Although attempting the impossible once in a while is a good idea, I think, which is one reason you might want to keep on with Toss the Feathers regardless.

Have fun!
Steve



starting with that tune, I'd say ditch the arrangement and try to copy

[zippydw]

Spots...Spots? Who needs spots?

Just one of many ways to get familiar with a tune. Many of my freinds don't even dignify them that much......

[Anomylous]

To the people who say that reading music isn't essential: Technically true. But it's still a highly useful skill that I think everyone should know. After all, when are you ever going to regret knowing how to read music?

In my experience, the best (and only) way to improve sight reading is just to do it a whole bunch. You might get a book of whistle tunes, and go through it and play everything enough to figure out if you like it, then learn the ones you like. That's how I learned

[Innocent Bystander]

The dots are useful, even if it's only to find out different people's versions of the same tune.
I sightread for guitar, but can only sightread very very slowly on whistle. It's much better to get the tune in your head and let your fingers do it.

Toss the Feathers is not an easy tune to start off with.

There are lots of threads here with suggestions for easy beginner tunes. Have a nose around. I'd suggest

My Darling Asleep
The Blackthorn Stick
Peg Ryan's Polka
The Cat Rambles to the Child's Saucepan (a Slide)

You can find abcs and midis of these on http://www.thesession.org

[riverman]

One of the great blessings of the whistle is that you don't have to haul music around, but it still sounds so beautiful. I am always tramping around in the woods with a whistle. I keep a few pieces of paper in my wallet with the first few notes of every tune, in case I forget how it begins. That's all.

[Denny]

I agree that whistling in the woods is a good idea.

It gives the bears plenty of time to get out of yer way,
especially a good idea this time of year!

[jemtheflute]

I'm not terribly familiar with anything the Corrs have done, but I have heard that number into which they interpose Toss the Feathers a few times, and if I recall aright they don't repeat the B music - I remember because it struck me when I heard the track - annoyed my ear by not doing the expected repeat! Grrrr! - Perfectly valid in their use of it, of course, but not how one would play it as a stand-alone tune (or in a set of reels). I believe the Corrs have a decent grounding in trad music and do know what they are doing when they play it/decide to mess around with it, but because they don't always play things in the main-stream trad way, they may not be the best exemplars if you want to learn! For sure, if their bits of trad stuck in a pop context fetch new people to the music who wouldn't have come to it otherwise, I welcome that, but I'd advise against copying their versions of trad material.

[electricmime]

Since someone mentioned beginner tunes, I thought I'd throw out the ones I've worked on first:

Sally Gardens, Merry Blacksmith, Old Copperplate, Cooley's Reel, Geese in the Bog, Out on the Ocean, Saddle the Pony,Connaughtmans' Rambles, Down by the Sally Gardens, Dawning of the Day.

I'm currently working on the Lilting Banshee.

[KenRyan]

Does this mean you're working on a sheet-music arrangement published by or on behalf of the Corrs?
I suppose if your aim is to reproduce what the Corrs do with that tune, then this is a reasonable way to proceed.

Steve,

Yes I am using sheet music published by The Corrs. I like what they do with the song. Thanks for the advice! I've been practicing the song a lot (mostly in the car at stop lights;)). But it is slow-going.

Do you have a few tunes to recommend I start with?

Thanks again.

Ken